Movies With Mom: Percy Jackson

I took my two oldest daughters (“H” is 10 and “M” is 12) to “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” (PG) since they both read all five books in the series. They had me watch the first Percy Jackson movie with them “so I would understand this one,” but I still ended up asking them a lot of questions to clear things up.

As a mom, I was most impressed with the fight scenes that allowed the actors facial reactions to tell you what was happening rather than showing the violent hits or injuries. It was one of the most tame portrayals of physical conflict I have seen in a movie.

As we left the film, they were discussing what was portrayed differently from the book and what the movie improved upon, so I asked them to briefly explain how it compared to the book:

H: “Best part was the Hippocampus. They only showed one but I knew it would be cool and it was awesome! I’m really bummed that they didn’t show Percy being turned in to a guinea pig though. I wanted to see that happen.”

M: “Yeah, and they didn’t include anything about the Sirens or Grover and Percy’s empathy link. The quest for the Golden Fleece was the same as the book though – it was to save the tree’s [Thalia’s] life, so it ended the same.”

H: “I didn’t get why they showed Hermes the way they did. It wasn’t anything like in the book.”

M: “But they DID show the snakes George and Martha and they were funny!”

Me: “So are you glad you saw it? What would you rate it out of 5 stars?”

H: “I don’t understand why the author let them change so much from the book. There was a lot of stuff left out in the movie but the other things that it showed made up for it. I’m glad we saw it! I give it 3 stars.”

M: ”It was a great movie! I can’t wait for them to make the next one! 4 stars!”

There you have it. This is truly one of those movies best appreciated by those who have read the book. Parents can rest easy that this is an action movie that’s as kid-friendly as any I’ve seen before. The special effects are cool and the language completely G-rated. This movie gets a thumbs-up from me, too.